I had downloaded this book to my Kindle way back in October of 2016. Likely, as a GoodReads recommendation on my daily deals email. Regarded as a bit sci-fi, a bit horror, with over 1,000 5-star reviews and the low, low cost of free, I added it to my Library. And to the backlog it went. I recently began cleaning off my Kindle and removing the books collecting digital dust. I read a few chapters of “Yesterday’s Gone” and decided to give it a go.
I haven’t read a story is this serialized format in some time (last time was probably some Stargate Fan Fiction.) Written with each character perspective offering only a short scene, and a collection of scenes creating an episode. Each season (or book) contains six episodes. This format creates a quicker pace and plenty of cliffhangers, which the authors, Platt and Wight, set forth to do – create a story format that mimics their favorite TV shows.
The story premise is this: One day, at 2:15 am, most of the human population disappears. Those who find themselves alone in the world make up our main cast. Among them is a serial killer with profanity-laced catchphrases (impressive wordplay aside, it can be a bit too much at times.) Plus, an angsty teenager and his abusive stepdad, a neighborhood group that decided it best to stick together, a young boy with possible mental powers, a father who worked too much and was never home, and a secret agent.
Each character, or group, finds a path to either survive, to attempt to find their loved ones, or to figure out what is going on in their new world. There are bad guys, of course. Evil gross-looking creatures that travel in packs and may or may not be aliens, zombies, or some weaponized infection has gone wrong – we don’t know much by the end of the book.
In each of the character’s scenes, it appears the writers aimed to have a different writing style to give each character a distinct voice or feel. The problem is, this didn’t actually create much character development (only a few cases of bad grammar.) The few female characters are weakly written. A young girl, a mother, a pregnant teen – if you’re looking for any glimmer of a bad-ass heroine you are out of luck. The mother’s scenes, Mary, focused mainly on the male characters traveling with her! There are a few random female characters added later in the story, but they are still kind of pathetic.
At the time of this review, there are six books in the series. While the small-scene format created chapters I found easy to read here-and-there through my day (at an average of five minutes per) I also felt frustrated by the constant cliffhangers. Maybe some of the issues are correct in later seasons, but I will not be reading any further. I felt that after this first season, I should have a better grasp of each character, and frankly, I don’t feel myself rooting for any of them to survive (similar to the first two season of “Fear the Walking Dead”).